Covid-19 is still striking, musicians are going broke and venues are shutting down… What is the future of live music in the near future and beyond? Will concerts happen in 2021? Between live stream music, socially distanced concerts and technology developing new entertainment ways, here are 6 alternatives to the traditional concert some artists came up with throughout the last year.
Yeah, 2020 was everything but what we expected. Just like most sectors, the music industry is struggling to keep its head above water. Professionals spend their time planning and unplanning every music event, and musicians lost their biggest source of income. What is the future of live music? The situation may look like it’s hopeless at the moment, but it’s absolutely not ! Give a listen to the 50 best albums of 2020 if you need to be convinced.
Indeed, despite the weird situation we are in, we are all in this together and most musicians decided to play their part in giving a little hope to their audiences. They created more music than ever during the different global lockdowns, found new ways to broadcast their music with constantly higher quality live streams, and dropped albums we could only dreamt about. Just like After Hours by the Weeknd or Soul on Fire by the Last Internationale.
With this in mind, we also know live music has existed since the beginning of the human race and no war, revolution or pandemic could ever take that away. So, you’re still wondering what is the future of live music? Ask yourself this question : whenever live music comes back as we know it, who wouldn’t be there? Every music fan will be there. If you still need reasons to keep hope, here are six reasons live music will never die.
In the meantime, artists and music professionals came up with futuristic alternatives to keep live music alive during the global pandemic. In this article, we’ll cover all the incredible innovative solutions to the traditional shoulder-to-shoulder crowded gig we run into.
Concerts 2021 : the nearby future of live music
These all are suppositions made on the successful alternatives we’ve seen in the past year, that could have a future in the music industry. Keep in mind that is an ever changing situation and rules are dictated by the government of each country.
Social distancing at concerts
Okay, on the paper, concerts with social distancing sounds great if that’s the condition for them to happen. But is it doable in real life? Let’s get creative and take a look at the innovative and novel solutions some musicians came up with.
Socially distanced concerts UK : Sam Fender
In August 2020, Sam Fender held the first socially distanced public concert at the Virgin Money Unity Arena in Newcastle, England. Since the first lockdown started, he hadn’t toured and just couldn’t wait to jump back on stage. So he just couldn’t miss this opportunity to prove the future of live music is hopeful and just around the corner.
500 groups of up to five people maximum, friends or families from the same household, were seated on their own raised platform. They could party from there while listening to the gig, with their own hand sanitizer station and mini fridge. Pretty nice and safe huh ?
Bubble Concert Flaming Lips
The American alternative rock band reinvented live music in August 2020. They found a unique way to beat the odds, by locking themselves and the audience in individual big bubbles ! It may look unreal and a bit insane, but it’s in fact very smart because the infection risk is almost nonexistent. People got to enjoy and dance in their own bubbles
It’s not the first concert of that kind though. Indeed, the “singer in a bubble” concept made its first appearance at Wayne Coyne’s concert. The difference is, the crowd imitated the singer this time !
Drive in Concerts
We’ve seen lots of “drive-in” gigs popping up everywhere on the globe recently. Yes, just like the old theaters movies you could see in the back of your car back in the days ! This initiative is extremely smart, because people can enjoy live music again in a responsible and safe way. Artists play their music on stages while cars park all around, still with safety distances.
To name a few, we’ve seen this kind of event in Indonesia with the “New Live! Experience” in Jarkarta, but also in the United States with the country star Brad Paisley, at Livenation’s event “Live from the Drive-In”. Keith Urban also played its part by surprising the healthcare frontworkers at the Stardust Drive-In in Watertown.
Tuk Tuk Festival Thailand
Thailand saw the drive in concerts trend and was like “this is too obvious, let’s add to the fun”. They presented the world’ first ever Tuk Tuk Festival, which took place at the waterside promenade “Asiatique: The Riverfront” in Bangkok on August 8th.
It’s a very smart move because they ticked loads of boxes at the same time. Thai people and expats were happy to party with live music, the COVID restrictions were respected and they promoted Thailand holidays tourism immensely by highlighting their most iconic transport system : the Tuk tuk. It was also a great way to stimulate the economy of the music, event, drink and food industries.
Seated Concerts
Before, during and after the summer 2020, we’ve seen a lot of drama shows, cinemas or artistic shows in all kinds reopened with important social distances. It happened for concerts too and we’ve witnessed immersive experiences with Underscope and the Gaite Lyrique in Paris for instance. People seated on chairs with 2m between them.
There’s a huge chance for them to come back to France in the near future as the french Culture Minister said there’s hope for seated shows and festivals this summer. Yes, this is not the usual party style, you got a point. But it’s still better than nothing !
Virtual Reality Events
Since the near future for live music is quite uncertain, it gave awesome space for virtual reality startups to grow. For instance, we can talk about Jadu, a social hologram app allowing fans to place holograms of their favourite artists in their room.
We can also give a shoutout to Noys Vr, a new platform who allows artists and fans to co-create concerts virtually in the venue they want ! Fans can interact with each other and move in the venue. Pretty insane right ?
Test concerts with temperature and PCR test checks
If you haven’t heard about it yet, the minister of Culture in France decided to start “crowd concert testing” very soon. Seated shows are likely to come back soon, but what about standing concerts ? Experiments will take place in the french cities of Paris and Marseille.
The first test concert will be held in the Dome of Marseille in late March, with 1000 people. IAM will be performing and the crowd will be originally seated, but allowed to stand up. Participants will be masked and tested prior and after the concert. Positive cases will be allowed to enter to mix the crowd and give sense to the test.
The second test concert will take place at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris in April, with the same protocol. Rumors say Indochine might be the headliner. After both test concerts, authorities will reunite and decide what the near future of live music concerts will be.
Future of live music venues
Even if live music will survive, your favourite live music venues may not. No one could plan the economic chasm that was coming for them. Most of the ones that are financially struggling opened online fundings so you can afford to help a little, help them fight the closure.
It’s pretty much the same for the upcoming artists. Even if they can’t tour right now, they might release new music. If you can, buy their new records ! If you need inspiration, you can check out the best music releases of January 2021, just like Close to You by Dayglow.
In those particularly weird times, people need time away from all their screens and solutions do exist. The music industry knew how to fill the gap and the fans responded present. So if you’re wondering what will be in demand after covid, be sure people will still want to party again. And when the demand is there, the offer grows. So imma tell you, even if the current situation is awful, the future of live music is shining !
